Review: “Not Cool: The Hipster Elite and Their War on You” by Greg Gutfeld

In his new book, “Not Cool: The Hipster Elite and Their War on You,” Greg Gutfeld pulls an Alec Baldwin by warning he will leave the United Sates and “move to Texas” if President Obama is not impeached by the publication date.

Well, that deadline has come and gone, and it doesn’t look like the co-host of Fox’s “The Five” talk show will be buying a Hill Country cattle ranch anytime soon.

While his threat to flee “Obama’s America” may have been done with tongue in cheek, Gutfeld clearly hearts the Lone Star State.

“It’s great,” he said in an interview last week. Texas “has its own unique kind of independent vibe.”

Later this month, Gutfeld will spend four days in Texas — with two stops in the Houston area — as part of a nationwide blitzkrieg by bus to promote the new book.

Texas represents “old school America” at its libertarian-leaning best,” said Gutfeld, who also stars in “Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld,” a late night/early morning talk show on Fox. “It’s where you can pretty much do whatever you want as long as you leave people alone. That’s my motto: Just leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone and we’ll get along great.”

In the book, Gutfeld contends that people have an overwhelming hunger to be appreciated and admired by others, or to be thought “cool.”

“We hand over that judgment to people who really don’t like you or care about you,” Gutfeld said. “But somehow, we want their approval.”

Who are the “Hipster Elite” determining what’s “cool?” Gutfeld points to the media, Hollywood and academia. They are responsible for a culture that honors performance artists over plumbers and Playboy models turned self-described vaccination experts over trained medical professionals, Gutfeld said.

“We are left with a dreary planet of self-esteem sponges more interested in capturing the approval of phonies than actually doing something real or positive with their lives,” he writes.

For instance, Gutfeld argues that it’s “cool” to be a college activist but only if you’re agitating for a particular set of generally left-of-center issues.

“You’ve got to be against big business and industry,” he said. “You’ve got to be against fracking and you’ve got to be for fossil fuel divestment on campus.”

A supporter of gay rights and liberalizing drug laws, Gutfeld has his own independent streak that some might find unusual in a Fox News host. It’s on full display during his late-night “Red Eye” program — a gonzo take on news talk shows where it wouldn’t be unusual to see a congressman discussing viral cat videos with a pro wrestler and a punk rock singer.

“Not Cool” seems not so much partisan political tract as a denunciation of what Gutfeld argues is the lockstep mentality and demand for ideological purity from the self-appointed arbiters of hipness.

“A person satisfied with who they are and what they do finds himself inherently resistant to the superficial pulls of the cool,” Gutfeld concludes.